Trump

President Donald Trump is consistently trying to wear out the multilateral trading system in order to capitalize on US position of economic power against its trading partners. Does it sound very mercantilist? It does, and it is.

Many analysts have described Trump’s rhetoric from a moral perspective, but not a rhetorical one. If we consider the three basic rhetorical appeals, as laid out by Aristotle- logos, pathos and ethos- it becomes clear that Trump almost exclusively uses pathos, or emotional appeals, to communicate his points. This fact is revealing of him as a speaker and leader.

The decision of President Donald Trump to withdraw the United States of America from the Paris Agreement shocked the international community. After his decision (which, according to Article 28, of the agreement, cannot take place earlier than 4th November 2020) to abandon this historic climate pact that brought together all the countries in the world – with the exception of Syria and Nicaragua – is there still hope for an ambitious climate policy that keeps global warming “far below 2º C”?

The announced rebuff of the Paris Climate Agreement by the world’s first economy will have profound impacts on renewable technologies investment. It will restrain investment opportunities, innovation and technology transfers, which are instrumental in meeting the carbon reduction vows of Paris.

Europe seems to perceive the day of Trump’s rise to power as a total disaster. But that does not imply that some of his ideas do not resonate with European citizens. Moreover, it does not mean the end of the U.S.-European partnership and the demise of European economic might.

2016 has brought us Brexit and Trump, and with them came the loud, mass calls for repeating or at least recounting the votes. So what happened to respecting the will of the people? Don’t get me wrong, I am just as appalled and disappointed by the recent turn in Western politics as you probably are. However, the people have voted and I must respect that. And so do you and so does everyone else. Whether we are happy about the result or not.